Hands on review in German with sample footage:
Remember to express your opinion as soon as you'll get it, ok?
I will be pre-ordering this since I have a bunch of FF & APS-C K-mount lenses and have two PK-NEX adapters for my Pentax FA and DA (FF/APS-C) type lenses on order from Fotodiox. I have also been using them on my GH1/GH2. The VG900 has a switch to use APS-C mode with lenses like my 10-24mm and 18-55mm. My first lens purchase may be the FF Samyang 24mm F1.4 and I have the Steadicam Merlin and will use that on the VG900.
I have no idea.
Do you think the work on the NEX 5N hack can be brought over to this unit?
I would be interested in a hack that can switch on APS - C crop with legacy lenses --- currently suggested to work only with Sony E lenses.
Also a 4:3 mode would be nice
I can dream.............zzzzzzzzz
I think Sony has done what Canon should have done ages ago. Provide the split line up of DSLR and Camcorder in Full Frame. Given us interchangeable lenses and mounts and an option for clean HDMI out to a Prores 422 recorder. Just as with the C100, everyone is obsessed with what is happening in camera, but the real truth is the maximum quality of the output through something like the Hyperdeck shuttle or Ninja. My guess is that while neither is 10 bit, the quality of the C100 is going to be great with their excellent sensor (and especially lack of rolling shutter) and even on this camera we will find enough information for doing some decent grading for specialized projects. Given that this camera does Full HD in 60p, I think it ain't so bad for 3000$, at least not as bad as some here are making it out to be. The BMC is great, but I certainly wouldn't use it as a walkaround camera, and I think that is the point of these kind of promo videos.
Not very hard, but we are not ready yet. Infrastructure is not ready. Storage and memory are not ready. Chips are not ready, sensors speed must be also improved. I am sure that as soon as small SDHC cards will have speeds that will be suitable for this, all will change fast.
How hard would it be for a camera manufacturer to take the 12bit RAW / ProRes 422 capabilities of the BMC, and put it into a camera with the sensor and form factor of the VG900? One can only dream...
@Mimirsan Well, I haven´t used the bmc yet so I can´t have any complaints about it. My experiences make me a bit apprehensive for the whole VG lineup. It seems suspect, even if I have not tried this particular model either. God knows there are ENG cameras with dreadful useability as well.
The footage seems a bit soft from the Spain video. Difficult to judge until we get some not too compress ones. Moire/aliasing seems to be very low, I don't know if they did a 5d mark3, that is trade sharpness for lower aliasing/moire. One thing that seem very good is rolling shutter. From the train and the car shot, there seems to be very little skew.
@RRRR Sounds it might of been a VG20 (as it has no colour profiles) but kelvin is easy enough to find in the settings.
Funny thing is that I have the very same criticism towards the much loved BMCC in that it has some basic physical buttons but still requires you to go into the world of onscreen touchscreen interface to do certain things. Yet it doesnt get much flack for it.
Even the "second coming" has ergonomic issues. ;-)
Its the way technology is these days. At least theres more buttons for certain things this time around.
Here's a video preview which features the A99, however the last five minutes looks at the VG900. On the positive side, it seems to be able to mount a variety of lenses, but once again they forgot to add a built-in ND filter option.
Yep, I fail to understand why only one SD slot, as this is best camera to put two or more :-)
@Mimirsan; easy access to fps, color profiles, iso, white balance (manual) e.t.c. is often crucial. On a shoot, where the b-cam was a vg20 (might have been a vg10 when I think about it) the guy (who was using it daily) couldn´t set the kelvin manually nor do any adjustments to the color profiles... (we didn´t have time to wait for it either) The b-cam footage ended up pretty useless because of that / thankfully we had enough from the a-cam. Simplicity is OK, but not when it leads to stupid. Then it becomes the complete opposite of efficiency. A dedicated menu controller / joystick would make it a lot more intuitive to use; and to not have to re-toggle when you´ve selected the wrong thing in the menu.
Few controls might work ok for those who want to avoid settings; run a lot on automatic. For those who want access, it´s no good.
I have an SD90, which is extremely simple and the menu is reasonably obvious but even with that I found the supposed simplicity a nuisance. Thing is that there is often some strange logic at work in the creation of "simple" menus; things are not where you would expect them to be, and some things are always over-looked.
@RRRR It has buttons for focus.Iris.shutter speed.gain.zebra.peaking.AE and a "custom" button.
How many buttons do you need for run and gun filmaking? :-D
Even my inferior VG20 has enough button controls. I only go into menu for zebra peaking and one touch focus.
Simplicity is efficiency
Shame the VG900 has only one SD port ahh well.
This looks great!
Hoping for some vimeo footage/better compressed stuff, but actually like what I see so far. Camera's super ugly, though. lol.
@Vitaliy_Kiselev Small form factor is good, however I don´t like the lack of dedicated / programmable buttons on the VG series.. It´s like working with any cheap camcorder these days. Endless browsing of menus. Maybe this will be better on the VG900, can´t say.
Oh, and I really hate smart phones (I want a phone that can call and send messages, with buttons) btw so maybe that is something to take into consideration when reading my opinion. ;)
Ok - I'm a convert - I like this thing.
Generally, I like this small form factor.
XLR could be good, of course, but someone was aftaid that it can be too much.
Personally I think it´s crazy that they chose the previous vg-line form factor for it. It could have been really interesting if it had been more like the early rumours - an ENG light if you will. Weight / Size is not so much an issue either as many FF lenses are huge.
Obviously, it will propably still be a viable option for dslr videographers, if the quality holds up. (No doubt it seems like a better prospect than a mk III).
Now, this is a good "HACK" investment :P
This things are just different and made for different purposes.
One is with small sensor and 20x zoom, and other is just body with full frame sensor. Remember that Sony power zoom is not cheap (but new smaller power zoom announced). And due to large sensor you'll need to close aperture if you are doing doc stuff.
Also remember that from audio side, it is really HDSLR, no XLR until you get extra pricey addon (much better is to just get third party preamp or recorder).
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